I write essays, tweetstorms, and books.

Joined March 2009
651 Photos and videos
24 Jun 2025
My favorite part of this new era is that you dont need to be technical to build something. For a long time, I suffered from a lot of FOMO since I wasnt an engineer/designer/marketer/you name it. I’ve always been a jack of all trades, master of none. Maybe a generalist/operator… maybe something else, I don’t know. But we’re now entering a time where being a generalist is no longer a bad thing. If you’re willing to tinker and learn, you can pick up new skills at 10x the speed you previously could. Full-stack devs are now Fuller-stack devs. Strong ICs are now Super ICs. The “10X” idea now applies to any role: - 10X engineer - 10X designer - 10X marketer - 10X operator - 10X investor You dont need to be everything to everyone all at once. But you can be dangerous enough in half a dozen domains to blow everyone’s doors off.
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One of the biggest mistakes first-time founders make: Over the last 2.5 years, there have been plenty of highs and lows as I’ve built / scaled Tweetjoy. At times, like when a client churns or my pipeline looks thin, it’s easy to get really stressed. But when I zoom out and see how many great things I’ve accomplished (milestones I hit & expectations I exceeded), I realize there’s so much more worth celebrating than worrying about. When building your first business, there’s a sense of paranoia that the whole thing could disappear tomorrow. Now that I'm a few years in, I realize that a bit of paranoia is healthy, but too much of it is unhealthy, and often misplaced. When I started TweetJoy, the goal was to rebuild my life with intention. Not only have I spent more meaningful time with my wife and son than I ever could working a 9-5, but I’ve also significantly increased my income and earning potential by designing a business around one thing I do well. Before Tweetjoy, I was a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. Now that I’m focused on one skill, the right clients seek me out. They hire me at a fraction of a full-time employee’s cost and gain from someone who’s worked with dozens of founders. I wouldn’t trade this journey for anything. Sure, I wish I’d started sooner, but every step brought me exactly to where I am today. I'm sharing this because if you’re scared, hesitant, or currently walking a similar path, remember that your journey (like mine) is 1000s of steps. Each step brings you closer to where you want to be. Celebrate the small wins and enjoy the moment. That’s what entrepreneurship is all about.
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29 Mar 2025
I’m fairly certain that anyone can make it in life if they pick one thing, stick with it for ten years, and commit themselves to becoming excellent at it. It takes discipline. It takes courage. It takes resilience. But after ten years, people will take one look at you and your craft and think to themselves, “I admire/want to be surrounded by people like THAT.” You can be THAT person. The person that other people admire, simply because you didn’t quit.
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17 Mar 2025
It’s crazy how much your life can change the moment you surround yourself with the right people.
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16 Jan 2025
In your career, one of the best moves you can make is to focus on one thing and get really good at it. Practice it nonstop until you’re the person everyone wants to work with. When you’re amazing at something, you make other people’s lives easier, and they’ll naturally talk about you with their friends. This happens because once you help other people reach their goals, they’ll want to help you reach yours. Keep in mind, this cannot all happen in three or six months. That might get you started, but real expertise takes years of consistent effort. As your confidence grows and your results speak for themselves, people will seek you out. Keep sharpening that one skill, and you’ll constantly outshine others. This is how you stand out, build a solid reputation, and open new doors.
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Jamie Russo retweeted
GPs at the most prestigious firms can and are becoming bigger than the brand they represent simply by “being online”. Early wins, best friends with the most powerful people in the world, prior founders with huge outcomes. In the short term golden handcuffs are a reason not to go out on your own, but long term its a no-brainer. Raise $500M Fund I, have all of the economics, already have the key three pillars set: right to see, right to win, right to concentrate. The value add of a platform VC is “we know the best guy for that” from hiring, fundraising, GTM, etc. That is easy to put in place if desired. Anyone who doesn’t do this either really enjoys internal politics or is old.
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The ultimate lifehack: 1. Build a biz serving super-connectors 2. Deliver an EXCEPTIONAL service 3. Underpromise/overdeliver 4. Rinse repeat The WoM flywheel will be completely unmanageable.
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27 Nov 2024
As a solo writer, you'll find your best new clients through existing clients. If you do great work, your current clients will tell their friends about you. Their friends see your writing, ask about it, and learn your name. Success builds naturally this way. • 1 client leads to 2 clients • 2 lead to 4 clients • 4 to 8 Poor service means you'll lose clients fast and go to zero. IMO the path to growth in any business is making customers happy. Happy customers tell their friends about you. Their happiness becomes your success. Nothing is more straightforward than that.
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23 Nov 2024
They say do what you love, BUT… .. BUT if you find love in making other people happy then you could literally do anything in the world • If you create the best ‘X product’ on the planet, and ‘X Product’ makes people happy, you’ll be happy • If you deliver the best ‘Y service’ on the planet, and ‘Y service’ makes people happy, ok you catch my drift The point is, you don’t really need to worry too much about WHAT you do when you’re getting started. If you stick with it long enough, you’ll get good at it, and that’ll make people happy, which’ll make you happy. The problem is that most people never start to begin with, which is why they get stuck on the WHAT. But it’s not WHAT. It’s not WHY. It’s also not WHO. Honestly, it’s just YOU.
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22 Nov 2024
The hardest part about starting a lifestyle business is keeping it a lifestyle business. The more it grows, the more you want it to grow. But I see this a simple trap of ambition. To counteract this, I put intentional constraints in place. They are a forcing function inside my business. - Signing off at 6pm - Time blocking deep work - Not checking email on weekends If you don’t protect your time, no one else will do it for you. There will always be more. The trick is knowing when enough is enough.
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The way we work is about to change. The old model is simple. Companies buy software. Workers use that software. Everyone stays in their lane. But that’s about to flip upside down. Regular people will start using AI and automation tools to do incredible things. One person with the right tools will do the work of an entire department. They won't just be a little better at their job. They'll be thousands of times more productive. A single person will handle tasks that used to need fifty people. They'll serve dozens of clients at once, not just one employer. They'll solve complex problems in minutes instead of months. They'll be normal people using powerful tools. Most companies can’t handle this rate of change. Imagine an employee figures out how to do 100 times more work. What will the company offer them? A 3% raise? A nice bonus? It won't be enough. High performers will look at this math and leave. They'll set up their own operations. They’ll make more money than ever before. They won't need a big team. They won't need an office. They'll just need their skills and their tools. This will create a new kind of work. One person plus good tools equals an entire company's output. These solo operators will eat into everyone else’s profits. They'll steal the best clients. They'll solve problems faster. They'll charge less and make more. We won't be waiting long for this change. It's already starting. The tools are getting better every day. The smart players are making their moves.
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The irony in online writing... Every corner of the internet screams advice at you. Write this way. Hook your readers like this. Build your audience like that. Follow these steps to grow. But 99.9% of that advice is useless. It's generic. Cookie-cutter. One-size-fits-all. To think .01% of people succeed with these formulas is nonsense. The writers who break through are the ones who write their hearts out. Publish thousands of times. Fail publicly. Learn privately. And put in the hard work to discover who they are. You won’t stand out by blending in.
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Two years ago, I made a small shift: I stopped buying new domains. I stopped tweaking landing pages. I stopped caring what others think. And I went all-in on Tweetjoy. This decision came from a realization. When you're running a one-person business, your time and mental bandwidth are your most precious resources. You can't afford to spread them thin. Like many, I used to think I needed multiple income streams, including some ghostwriting on the side to pay bills. But making the choice to focus on one thing completely transformed my small business into something much bigger. In a world where everyone tries to do everything, mastering one thing makes you stand out.
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25 Oct 2024
Nothing beats the energy of being around ppl that dream big. They don’t have to be entrepreneurs—just people with so much ambition, it feels like it could break through your computer on a Zoom call.
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10 Oct 2024
It's wild how much changes in a year. That's probably my biggest takeaway from being a dad. When you have small kids, no two days are the same. One minute they're learning to crawl, the next they're sprinting down the hallway. It's a constant reminder of how fast life moves. A year ago, I was a mess. Stressed about leaving my 9-5. Unsure if I could make it on my own. Wondering if I'd made the right choice for my family. Now it's a different story. I'm running a thriving business. I spend more time with my family than ever. I actually enjoy the work I do every day. Things change. Fast. If you don't pause to appreciate it, life might just breeze by. One day you'll look up and wonder where the time went. Take a moment. Reflect. Celebrate the small wins. And enjoy the ride.
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Life is a marathon, but sometimes it feels like a series of sprints with no room to breathe. I quit my job, bought a house, started a small business, and had my first kid in under 1 year. This is the case for a lot of other people my age, and yet there’s nothing we can do to prepare for it. I hear a lot of people say things like, “I’m don’t feel ready for X, Y, or Z.” Honestly, I get it. Many of life’s decisions are highly personal. But I don’t know anyone who’s ever said they felt totally ready to quit their job or have a kid. Sometimes we say things like “I knew it was now or never” just to hype ourselves up psychologically. But months after a major life decision, you might second guess it or feel like you’re drowning. Keep going. You’re not alone. Life is wild and complicated. That’s what makes it worth living :)
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27 Sep 2024
My friends are killing it. At this point, I feel like the only one who hasn’t dropped out of Harvard or done YC. I’m so fricken proud of them, and will do my best not to compare. I remind myself daily :) Surround yourself with good people. Good people attract more good people. Success is contagious.
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26 Sep 2024
I love being a dad. It’s literally one of the greatest jobs in the world, yet it took me nearly two years to truly appreciate it. It still blows my mind that you can walk into a hospital with nothing, and walk out days later with a baby. Nothing can prepare you for it, and yet that’s part of what makes being a parent so great. Never a dull moment.
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25 Sep 2024
Calling this place home next summer
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25 Sep 2024
You don’t need to be everything to everyone. In fact, when your business is still small, a narrow focus can be a competitive advantage. When I was in my first few months of running Tweetjoy, I made a really conscious decision to only work with a really specific type of customer. It was so specific that there were really only 50-100 prospects in my funnel. Because of that, I was able to be really targeted in my messaging, positioning, and offer. It worked, but not for the reasons you might suspect. What I realized, or what I found out rather, was that all 50 of those people talked to each other. A lot of them were in the same group chats, they’d constantly be texting one another about life and startups. When something went well for one client, they’d text their friends, and those friends were people who I also really wanted to work with. In the beginning, taking a narrow focus can feel like the wrong decision — it can feel like turning down easy money. But what I’ve found is that easy money might pay the bills in the short term, but it’s rarely the right move in the long term.
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